TODD 


A  Sermon  in  Kemory  of  Edward  Everett. 


DEATH     IN     THE     P  A  L  A 


\ 


ermon 


IN   MEMORY   OT 


EDWARD    EVERETT 


BY 

REV.    JOHN    E.    TODD, 

SOCIETY, 


22,    1865. 


BOSTON: 

DAKIN    AND    METCALF,    PRINTERS. 
1865. 


/J3EATH     IN     THE     PALACE 


A 


IN   MEMORY  OP 


EDWARD    EVERETT 


BY 

REV.    JOHN   E.    TODD, 

PASTOB  OF  THE  CENTRAL  CONGREGATIONAL  SOCIETY, 
BOSTON. 


,    1865. 


BOSTON: 

DAKIN    AND    METCALF,    PRINTERS. 
1865. 


SANTA  BARB 


BOSTON,  January  22, 1865. 
REV.  JOHN  E.  TODD. 

DEAR  SIR,  —  After  listening  to  your  just  tribute  to  the  memory  of  EDWARD 
EVERETT  in  your  discourse  of  this  morning,  a  desire  has  been  expressed  by 
many  of  your  friends,  that  it  should  be  put  into  a  permanent  form.  Will 
you  favor  your  people  with  a  copy  for  publication  ? 

In  behalf  of  the  Central  Congregational  Society, 

HENRY  EDWARDS, 

Chairman  qf  Standing  Committee. 


BOSTON,  January  23,  1865. 

HENRY  EDWARDS,  ESQ.,  Chairman  qf  Committee  qf  the  Central  Congregational 
Society. 

MY  DEAR  SIR,  —  The  very  complimentary  request  which  you  have  com- 
municated to  me  has  taken  me  quite  by  surprise.  I  can  hardly  feel  that 
the  sermon  of  which  you  speak  is  worthy  of  a  place  among  the  tributes  to 
the  memory  of  our  distinguished  fellow-citizen-which  will  be  called  forth ; 
but  I  defer  to  your  judgment  and  the  wishes  of  our  friends. 

Very  truly  yours, 

JOHN  E.  TODD. 


SERMON. 


<f  Death  is   come  up  into   our  windoivs,  and  is   entered 
into  our  palaces." 


Jeremiah   i.r. 


THE  palaces  of  a  free  people  are  the  homes  of  those  who, 
simply  by  the  force  of  princely  rniiids,  have  ruled  the 
opinions  and  passions  of  their  countrymen.  There  is  noth- 
ing about  them  to  arrest  the  eye  of  the  traveller ;  they 
lend  no  magnificence  to  the  city,  no  stateliness  to  the 
landscape ;  they  are  no  splendid  architectural  triumphs, 
thronged  by  visitors  wondering  at  mosaic  pavements,  and 
inlaid  floors,  and  frescoed  ceilings,  and  columns  of  porphyry, 
and  walls  hung  with  works  of  great  masters,  and  treasuries 
of  jewels,  and  gilded  thrones  ;  they  are  humble  and  modest 
dwellings,  hiding  among  the  fertile  plantations  of  Ashland, 
dimpling  the  smile  of  the  Potomac,  nestling  among  the 
farms  of  Marshfield,  lost  in  the  narrow  and  crowded  streets 
of  Boston ;  their  importance  is  derived  from  their  mighty 
occupants,  and  does  not  long  survive  them ;  when  these 
are  gone,  they  soon  fall,  like  the  home  of  Franklin,  before 
the  granite  tread  of  business,  or,  like  the  home  of  Hancock, 
before  the  progress  of  private  wealth ;  for  an  intelligent 
people  reverences  men  rather  than  things ;  and  a  young 
people  is  too  rich  in  the  possessions  of  the  present  and  the 


hopes  of  the  future,  to  cherish  with  tenderness  the  relics 
of  the  past. 

Into  another  of  these  our  palaces,  suddenly,  like  a  thief 
in  the  night,  a  messenger  of  death  has  entered,  summoning 
from  transactions  in  an  earthly  court  to  the  bar  of  a  juster 
and  more  august  tribunal  the  greatest  of  living  Americans. 

We  are  still  too  near  the  life  which  has  just  ended,  to  be 
able  to  see  it  in  its  true  and  full  proportions ;  when  we 
shall  have  left  the  building  a  little  behind  us,  we  shall  look 
back  upon  it  with  a  more  appreciative  survey.  Its  minuter 
features  are  still  too  generally  covered  with  the  veils  of 
secrecy  and  confidence  under  which  they  were  wrought,  to 
permit  us  to  count  and  study  them ;  we  shall  hereafter 
see  many  a  point  which  is  now  concealed,  coming  out  into 
golden  light.  Yet  before  the  current  of  time  bears  us 
farther  away  from  the  structure  in  whose  shadow  we-  have 
been  living,  it  is  fitting  that  we  should  repeatedly  turn,  to 
send  backward  to  it  fond,  lingering  looks,  and  sorrowful 
farewells. 

The  leading  incidents  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Everett  have 
been  too  public  and  too  often  chronicled,  to  leave  any  ne- 
cessity for  more  than  a  hasty  review. 

He  was  the  younger  son  of  a  Unitarian  minister,  and  was 
born  in  Dorchester  April  llth,  1794.  The  times  in  which 
he  was  cradled  produced  a  race  of  intellectual  giants. 
There  seems  to  be  an  established  law  of  nature,  according  to 
which  great  men  come,  like  meteors,  in  showers,  with  only 
here  and  there  a  straggler  between.  At  the  close  of  the 
last  century,  there  was  a  brilliant  coterie  in  Ireland,  such 
as  has  not  yet  been  reproduced;  there  were  Burke,  Cur- 
ran,  Grattan,  Plunket,  Toler,  and  a  host  of  lesser  stars, 
each  of  which  would  have  been  of  the  first  magnitude  in  a 


darker  firmament.  The  same  age  witnessed  in  England 
the  statesmanship  of  Pitt,  the  eloquence  of  Fox,  the  mil- 
itary genius  of  Wellington,  the  literary  triumphs  of  Scott 
and  Byron  and  Shelley,  the  sarcasm  of  Junius,  the  learn- 
ing of  Johnson  and  Gibbon  and  Hume,  the  heroism  of  Nel- 
son, the  decisions  of  Mansfield,  and  the  flash  of  many  an 
other  hardly  inferior  light.  A  little  later  a  similar  display 
of  intellect  illuminated  this  country.  Mr.  Everett  belonged 
to  the  age  when  Jackson  and  Scott  and  Harrison  rendered 
their  country's  arms  illustrious;  when  Calhoun  shook  the 
republic  with  his  erratic  intellect ;  when  Webster  shed  a 
glory  successively  upon  the  bar,  the  senate,  and  the  cab- 
inet, and  electrified  the  country  with  his  speeches  and  de- 
spatches ;  when  Clay  and  Benton  stood  on  the  floor  of 
Congress ;  when  Choate  led  juries  captive  at  the  wheels 
of  his  fiery  eloquence ;  when  Story  adorned  the  platform, 
the  bench,  and  the  lecture-room;  when  Mason  and  Chan- 
niug  graced  the  pulpit,  and  Beecher  and  Parker  thundered 
from  it;  when  Prescott  clothed  history  in  the  beauty  of 
romance,  and  Irving  filled  with  charm  the  walks  of  liter- 
ature. Of  this  generation  of  mighties  the  last  is  now  gone. 
Yet  rather  than  recognize  in  this  their  departure  symptoms 
of  degeneration  and  decay  among  us,  we  may  believe  that 
periods  of  great  commotion  and  excitement  are  the  winds 
which  stir  the  mysterious  deeps  of  human  being;  and  that 
therefore  the  tumultuous  experience  through  which  we  are 
now  passing  is  destined  to  be  the  beginning  of  the  roll  of 
another  wave  of  genius,  which  shall  break  in  its  riches  upon 
another  generation. 

At  the  very  early  age  of  thirteen,  Mr.  Everett  was  sent 
to  Harvard  College,  where,  after  the  usual  course,  he  grad- 
uated with  the  highest  honors.  The  next  two  years  were 


8 

spent  in  the  Divinity  School  in  Cambridge,  in  preparation 
for  the  work  of  the  ministry.  No  sooner  were  his  studies 
completed  than  he  received  an  invitation  to  settle  with  the 
Brattle  Street  Church  of  this  city.  It  is  an  evidence  of  his 
distinguished  ability,  that  at  the  age  of  nineteen  he  was 
•  thought  worthy  to  be  the  successor  of  a  preacher  of  such 
power  and  eloquence  as  the  noted  Buckminster.  The  ex- 
pectations which  he  had  excited  were  not  disappointed.  He 
began  to  exhibit  in  the  pulpit  that  persuasive  oratory  which 
constituted  through  life  his  greatest  charm  and  power.  The 
most  intellectual  men  of  the  day  listened  to  him  with  de- 
light and  in  tears.  But  it  was  not  as  a  preacher  that  he 
was  to  rise  to  greatness. 

After  two  years  spent  in  the  ministry,  he  accepted  an 
appointment  to  the  professorship  of  Greek  in  Harvard  Col- 
lege, with  the  understanding  that  he  should  be  allowed  to 
spend  some  time  in  Europe  in  preparation.  It  was  during 
this  absence  of  nearly  four  years  that  he  laid  the  founda- 
tions of  that  extensive  and  intimate  acquaintance  with  em- 
inent foreigners  which  he  enjoyed  through  life,  and  through 
which  his  subsequent  efforts  secured  an  immediate  and 
permanent  hold  upon  the  consideration  of  leading  men  in 
all  lands. 

On  his  return  to  this  country  in  1819,  he  entered  upon 
the  duties  of  his  office.  His  perfect  acquaintance  with  the 
,-Greek  language,  and  his  abilities  as  a  lecturer,  raised  him 
at  once  to  eminence  as  a  scholar.  But  it  was  not  in  the 
class-room  that  he  was  to  earn  immortality. 

In  the  course  of  the  following  year  he  assumed  the 
editorship  of  the  "North  American,"  a  review  which  had 
at  that  time  but  a  limited  reputation.  This  was  the  field 
in  which  his  peculiar  genius  first  began  to  find  room  to 


expatiate ;  for  although  it  is  true  that  his  gifts  were  varied, 
and  his  successes  manifold,  it  is  undoubtedly  upon  his 
efforts  as  an  essayist  and  orator  that  his  fame  will  most 
securely  and  permanently  rest.  In  more  than  a  hundred 
articles,  he  displayed  a  variety  and  profundity  of  learning, 
a  mastery  of  language,  and  a  delicacy  and  earnestness  of 
sentiment,  which  won  the  admiration  of  the  reading  world. 

In  the  fourth  }rear  of  his  labors  as  a  professor,  he  deliv- 
ered the  first  of  that  series  of  orations  and  speeches  with 
which  his  name  is  especially  associated.  In  this,  year,  also, 
he  left  the  chair  of  the  professor  for  a  seat  in  the  National 
House  of  Representatives.  The  ten  years  which  he  spent 
there  were  years  of  hard  labor, — years,  also,  of  repeated 
successful  efforts.  The  hall  that  was  accustomed  to  the 
thunders  of  Webster,  and  the  eloquence  of  Clay  and  Cal- 
houu,  listened,  also,  in  silence  and  with  rapture,  to  the 
graceful  and  glowing  periods  of  Everett.  The  greatest 
speakers  of  the  day  heard  him  with  delight,  and  unqualified 
praise. 

In  1835,  and  each  of  the  three  succeeding  years,  he  was 
called  by  the  people  of  this  commonwealth  to  be  their  chief 
magistrate.  It  was  his  lot  to  govern  at  a  time  when  there 
was  little  honor  to  be  won  by  administrative  ability ;  but 
he  was  already  a  man  to  confer  more  honor  upon  such  an 
office  than  can  be  gained  from  it  in  even  the  most  critical 
emergencies.  Yet  Mr.  Everett  was  never  a  thoroughly 
popular  man,  especially  as  a  politician.  He  was  too  just, 
too  true,  too  brave. 

Soon  after  his  retirement  from  the  chair,  he  made  a  tour 
through  Europe  for  health  and  recreation.  It  was  during 
his  absence  that  Webster,  newly-appointed  Secretary  of 
State,  secured  his  services  as  minister  to  the  Court  of 


10 

St.  James.  For  four  years,  and  through  as  many  changes 
of  the  home  government,  he  won  respect  for  his  country, 
even  at  that  fastidious  court,  and  through  a  period  of 
excitement,  in  which  the  passions  of  the  two  nations  were 
on  the  point  of  bursting  into  the  flames  of  war.  Never  has 
the  republic  been  more  nobly  represented. 

On  his  return  to  this  country  in  1845,  he  was  elected 
President  of  Harvard  College,  the  institution  of  which  he 
had  been,  as  a  pupil  and  as  a  professor,  the  pride.  It 
is  no  disparagement  to  him  to  allow  that  this,  of  all  the 
positions  which  he  filled,  was  the  one  in  which  he  was  least 
successful.  The  reason  for  it  was  honorable  to  him.  His 
mind,  high-toned  by  nature,  refined  by  culture,  long  accus- 
tomed to  the  courtliness  of  the  finest  society  in  the  world, 
and  the  dignity  of  diplomatic  circles,  could  not  adapt  itself 
to  the  management  of  young  men  in  that  half-fledged  state, 
—  when  they  have  ceased  to  be  boys,  and  have  not  yet 
learned  to  be  gentlemen. 

In  1852,  he  was  appointed  Secretary  of  State  by  Presi- 
dent Fillmore,  in  place  of  the  lamented  Webster.  No 
ordinary  man,  following  in  the  tracks  of  such  a  predecessor, 
and  especially  in  the  short  time  that  remained  to  the  Fill- 
more  administration,  could  have  won  for  himself  any  envi- 
able distinction ;  but  Mr.  Everett  succeeded  in  writing  a 
letter  on  the  Tripartite  Treaty,  which  drew  upon  him  the 
admiring  gratitude  of  his  countrymen,  and  the  thoughtful 
attention  of  the  civilized  world. 

The  next  year,  he  was  chosen  to  represent  Massachusetts 
in  the  United  States  Senate ;  but  in  consequence  of  ill- 
health,  he  was  soon  compelled  to  resign  his  seat.  From 
that  time  he  has  kept  himself  before  the  public  by  his  writ- 
ings and  speeches.  Foreseeing  the  political  rupture  of  our 


11 

country,  he  endeavored,  by  the  preparation  and  delivery 
throughout  the  country  of  a  magnificent  oration  upon  Wash- 
ington, to  revive  a  little  the  consciousness  of  common  ties 
and  common  interests.  The  Mt.  Vernon  Papers,  written 
for  popular  reading,  were  prepared  with  the  same  patriotic 
end  in  view.  The  profits  of  these  efforts,  amounting  to 
nearly  seventy  thousand  dollars,  were  freely  given  to  the 
fund  for  the  purchase  of  the  home  of  Washington.  Their 
only  effect  was  to  procure  for  Mr.  Everett  universal  respect 
and  imperishable  admiration. 

In  the  presidential  election  of  1860,  his  name  appeared 
on  the  ticket  of  the  so-called  conservative  Union  party. 
It  was  Mr.  Everett's  good  fortune  to  be  defeated ;  for  by 
the  noble  stand  which  he  took  by  the  government  of  his 
country,  as  soon  as  it  was  violently  assailed,  he  has  gained 
for  himself  a  place  in  the  hearts  and  memories  of  his 
countrymen,  though  but  a  private  citizen,  which  he  could 
never  have  secured  in  the  highest  office  under  one  who  has 
since  joined  his  country's  foes. 

The  pillar  upon  which  Mr.  Everett's  fame  will  chiefly 
rest  is  his  oratory.  Eminent  as  a  preacher,  a  scholar,  a 
politician,  a  governor,  a  diplomat,  a  statesman,  he  will  be 
remembered  above  all  as  an  orator. 

There  is  rarely  a  speaker  whose  words  suffer  more  in 
being  separated  from  the  personal  delivery  of  their  author. 
It  is  one  thing  to  read  Mr.  Everett's  speeches ;  it  was 
another  to  hear  them.  That  dignified  and  majestic  pres- 
ence, that  open  and  benevolent  countenance,  that  mild  and 
thoughtful  eye,  that  silvery  voice,  trained  and  modulated 
with  as  fine  an  art  as  ever  flute  was  played,  those  easy  but 
expressive  gestures,  carefully  studied,  yet  seemingly  spon- 
taneous,—  it  is  difficult  to  realize  that  from  the  halls  and 


platforms  where  they  have  been  so  often  and  so  recently 
familiar  to  us,  they  are  gone  forever.  If  he  did  not  employ 
the  fierce  and  sinister  delivery  of  Calhoun,  if  he  could  not 
rouse  enthusiasm  to  the  pitch  of  madness  with  the  myste- 
rious magic  of  Clay,  if  he  could  not  wield  the  naked  thun- 
ders of  Webster,  if  he  was  not  fired  with  the  nervous 
impetuosity  of  Choate,  there  was  none  to  vie  with  him  in 
insinuating  persuasiveness  and  a  captivating  grace,  which 
lacked  neither  warmth  nor  power.  He  could  not  crush  like 
Webster,  or  wither  like  Choate,  or  excite  like  Clay;  he 
was  not  the  man  to  wish  to  do  it ;  but  often  have  his 
audiences  followed  him,  breathless  and  entranced,  over 
wave  after  wave  of  elaborate  and  swelling  thought,  to  the 
very  summits  of  eloquence ;  and  when  he  had  a  theme 
fitted  to  waken  the  peculiar  patriotic  fervor  of  his  soul,  — 
like  the 'revival  of  the  Bunker  Hill  Monument  Association, 
the  Life  of  Washington,  or  the  maintenance  of  the  Federal 
Government,  —  he  spoke  often  from  such  a  depth  of  feeling 
as  to  melt  the  hearts,  and  moisten  the  eyes,  of  all  his 
hearers. 

If,  apart  from  the  charm  of  his  delivery,  we  seek  to  as- 
certain from  his  writings  wherein  his  great  power  lay,  we 
are  struck,  first  of  all,  with  the  splendor  of  his  scholarship. 
His  language  and  style  are  those  of  a  master.  The  Greek 
professor  seems  to  have  formed  his  oratory  in  the  schools, 
and  upon  the  models,  of  Athens.  Nothing  escapes  him 
which  would  offend  the  ears  even  of  an  Areopagite.  He 
never  descends  to  vulgar  expressions  ;  he  never  soars  on  the 
wings  of  bombast ;  he  never  deigns  to  court  notoriety  with 
eccentricities ;  he  never  utters  a  careless  word ;  he  never 
shows  his  consummate  art.  Studied  elegance  and  elaborate 
finish  crown  every  sentence.  He  draws  from  rich  stores  of 


13 

classical  learning,  illustrations  and  allusions  with  which  to 
animate  and  adorn  his  language ;  but  instead  of  being,  as  in 
the  writings  of  many,  interwoven,  as  it  were,  with  the  mental 
product,  with  unskilful  and  pedantic  hand,  they  all  seem  to 
have  passed  through  the  loom  of  his  own  intellect,  and  to 
have  become  an  essential  part  of  his  own  thought.  If  com- 
position may  be  compared  to  architecture,  the  style  of  Mr. 
Everett,  chaste,  proportioned,  polished,  was  to  that  of  Mr. 
Choate  wild,  luxurious,  overloaded, — what  a  Grecian  temple 
is  to  a  cathedral  in  the  florid  Gothic ;  while  that  of  Mr. 
Webster  was  like  some  bold,  severe,  and  rugged  natural 
rock. 

The  scholarship  of  Mr.  Everett  appears  in  the  substance 
even  more  than  in  the  style  of  his  writings.  The  produc- 
tions of  his  pen  embrace  a  vast  variety  of  themes,  and  reveal 
almost  unlimited  treasures  of  learning.  He  never  touched 
a  subject  but  to  illuminate  it.  Already  in  his  twenty-fifth 
year  he  was  one  of  the  finest  of  living  Greek  scholars.  As 
time  passed  on,  one  language  after  another,  and  one  depart- 
ment of  knowledge  after  another,  opened  for  him  its  stores. 
At  the  time  of  his  decease,  he  was,  undoubtedly,  the  best 
read  student  of  international  jurisprudence  that  our  country 
could  boast.  It  was  not  in  vain  that  the  light  burned  which 
often  at  midnight,  glimmering  from  the  windows  of  his 
library,  attracted  the  eye  of  the  passenger.  He  had  ran- 
sacked the  treasuries  of  theology,  law,  diplomacy,  oratory, 
and  history.  It  was  in  this  last  department  that  he  ranged 
without  a  rival.  There  was  none  like  him  to  irradiate  the 
obscurities,  and  solve  the  perplexities  of  a  subject,  by  pour- 
ing upon  it  the  light  of  precedents  and  former  experience. 
And  yet  his  learning  had  no  savor  of  pedantry.  There  are 
learned  men  whose  minds  are  teeming  and  overflowing  with 


u 

knowledge,  but  who  have  no  power  to  arrange  or  employ 
it ;  they  are  great  only  in  industry  and  in  memory.  Mr. 
Everett's  was  one  of  those  great  minds  which  have  clear  and 
discriminating  perceptions,  sound  judgments,  and  the  power 
of  bringing  order  out  of  chaos,  and  moulding  matter  into 
forms  of  life.  That  which  he  read  was  not  stored  away  in 
a  mental  cabinet,  to  be  forgotten  when  most  needed,  lost 
when  most  diligently  sought,  or  dragged  out  and  awkwardly 
welded  on  his  work ;  it  was  poured  into  the  crucible  of  his 
mind,  to  issue  interfused  with  a  glowing  stream  of  molten 
thought. 

A  distinguishing  characteristic  of  Mr.  Everett's  produc- 
tions, and  one  of  the  secrets  of  their  power,  was  the  good- 
ness which  permeated  them,  and  which  beautifully  irradiated 
his  private  life. 

His  orations  convey  the  same  impression  that  was  re- 
ceived from  a  perusal  of  his  noble  countenance,  —  an  im- 
pression of  calm  benevolence  and  majestic  purity.  He  was 
never  fired  with  that  personal  ambition  which  has  consumed 
the  lives,  and  warped  the  conduct,  and  tainted  the  principles, 
and  broken  the  hearts,  of  so  many  of  our  public  men.  In 
the  midst  of  the  fiercest  temptations  of  political  life,  he 
never  swerved  from  the  strait  and  narrow  path  of  incor- 
ruptibility and  temperance.  Tried  by  such'  sore  afflictions 
as  few  men  have  known,  within  a  veil  which  we  have  no 
right  or  wish  to  lift,  he  suffered  no  bitterness  to  be  infused 
into  his  disposition,  but  bore  his  griefs  with  silent,  manly 
dignity.  In  society  he  was  ever  genial,  interested,  benig- 
nant, though  reserved.  In  private  life  he  was  such,  that  to 
know  him  best  was  to  love  him  most. 

There  have  been  other  orators  among  us  who  have  risen 
to  eminence ;  but  some  of  them  have  achieved  a  reputation 


15 

by  indulging  in  stinging  personalities ;  others  have  dipped 
their  pens  in  gall,  and  revelled  in  withering  sarcasms  ;  oth- 
ers have  catered  to  a  misguided  public  taste  or  sentiment ; 
others  have  sacrificed  their  dignity,  if  not  their  principles, 
to  a  vulgar  popularity ;  others  have  soiled  their  productions 
with  stains  of  passion,  prejudice,  illiberal  feeling;  others 
have  marred  the  glory  of  their  public  career,  by  irregulari- 
ties of  private  life.  But  none  of  these  was  Everett.  His 
words  and  acts,  as  well  in  private  as  in  public,  were  instinct 
with  purity,  gentleness,  and  goodness.  He  combined  the 
strength  of  the  lion  with  the  gentleness  of  the  lamb. 

His  views  and  conduct  were  such  as  could  only  have  pro- 
ceeded from  a  union  of  greatness  of  mind,  and  greatness  of 
heart.  With  an  intense  affection  for  his  country,  and  a 
keen  sense  of  British  injustice,  he  was  yet  able  to  represent 
his  government  at  the  Court  of  St.  James,  during  a  period 
of  feverish  excitement,  with  perfect  dignity  and  moderation ; 
and  throughout  our  more  recent  provocations,  Mr.  Everett, 
although  he  has  not  failed  to  appreciate  the  wrong  of  Eng- 
land's course,  has  never  dropped  a  word  calculated  to  in- 
flame popular  passion.  He  was  one  who  dared,  in  the 
strength  of  conscientious  conviction,  to  breast  a  swelling  tide 
of  popular  sentiment.  He  was  one  of  the  feAV  who,  with  a 
strong  conviction  of  the  evils,  and  detestation  of  the  abuses, 
of  slavery,  could  yet  refrain  from  comprehending  all  con- 
nected with  it  in  one  indiscriminate  anathema.  He  was 
one  of  the  few  whose  patriotism  lifted  them  above  subservi- 
ence to  party,  the  associations  of  friendship,  and  the  pride 
of  opinion.  He  was  one  of  the  few  who,  with  the  heart  of 
a  true  statesman,  yearned  over  his  misguided  countrymen, 
and  urged  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  war  against  the  re- 
bellious, and  the  generous  treatment  of  the  conquered,  with 


16 

equal  eloquence.  His  greatness  was  shown  in  the  meekness 
with  which  he  could  acknowledge  an  error,  —  the  magnan- 
imity with  which  he  could  forgive  a  fault.  His  compassion 
for  the  suffering  Tennesseans  and  Georgians  has  been  testi- 
fied in  deathless  strains  of  feeling  and  power ;  yet  this  was 
but  an  exhibition  of  a  compassion  which  was  continually 
flowing  out  in  more  secret  channels,  which  will  never  be 
fully  known  till  the  recording  angel  shall  have  opened  his 
volumes.  The  public  life  of  Mr.  Everett  could  not  have 
more  fitly  ended  than  with  the  speech  which  was  his  last ; 
nor,  as  he  went  up,  a  sinful  man,  to  his  Father's  house, 
could  anything  have  more  recommended  him  to  forgiveness, 
and  the  best  robes,  than  the  plea  which  rung  from  his  dying 
lips,  for  mercy  and  generosity  toward  the  repentant  prodigals 
of  Savannah. 

If  there  was  one  virtue  which,  more  than  any  other,  ap- 
peared in  Mr.  Everett's  character,  —  one  principle  which, 
more  than  any  other,  governed  his  conduct,  it  was  the  love 
of  his  country.  This  love  was  manifested  in  his  constant 
interest  in  all  that  affected  the  liberty,  intelligence,  and 
morality  of  the  people.  The  aim  of  most  of  his  efforts,  the 
thread  upon  which  they  are  strung,  is  the  promotion  of  the 
real  good  of  the  people.  Schools,  libraries,  and  public 
improvements  never  failed  to  secure  his  countenance.  He 
never  withheld  his  counsels  or  his  services,  when  demanded 
even  by  the  smallest  interest  of  the  community.  He  was  a 
faithful  friend  and  supporter  of  all  religious  institutions; 
and  one  of  the  last  acts  of  his  life  was,  a  successful  resist- 
ance of  encroachments  upon  the  sanctity  of  the  Sabbath. 

But,  undoubtedly,  the  greatest  proof  of  Mr.  Everett's  pa- 
triotism, and  that  which  has  engraven  his  name  in  indeli- 
ble characters  upon  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  is  the 


17 

promptness  and  earnestness  with  which  he  flew  to  his 
country's  support  in  the  hour  of  her  agony.  The  assistance 
which  he  brought  to  our  government  in  the  encouragement 
which  he  offered  to  its  defenders,  the  decision  to  which 
his  example  brought  the  wavering,  the  respect  which  its 
espousal  by  such  a  man  secured  for  our  cause  abroad,  can 
never  be  told.  When  others  were  unable  to  shake  off  the 
fetters  of  preconceived  opinions,  and  party  prejudices,  and 
old  associations  ;  when  others  consulted  private  ambition  and 
interest,  rather  than  their  country's  welfare ;  when  others 
stood  aloof,  or  even  lent  their  helpful  sympathies  to  the 
nation's  enemies ;  when  others  offered  conditional  assistance, 
and  would  help  to  save  their  country  only  in  their  own 
way ;  he  brought  to  her  aid,  without  reserve,  all  his  vast 
influence  and  matchless  eloquence,  and  rose  in  her  defence 
with  a  patriot's  devotion  and  a  giant's  strength ;  and  when 
the  others  shall  have  fallen  into  deserved  oblivion,  the 
gratitude  of  his  country  shall  trim  anew  the  light  immortal 
which  burns  before  the  name  of  Everett. 

The  lesson  of  his  life  to  us  all,  and  especially  to  young 
men,  is  the  worth  and  power  of  goodness.  It  is  as  a  good 
man  that  he  is  presented  to  us  for  our  imitation.  His  gifts, 
his  opportunities,  his  acquirements  will  not  be  granted  to 
any  of  us  ;  his  goodness  may  be  the  inheritance  of  all.  It  is 
often  felt,  particularly  by  young  men,  that  goodness  and 
purity  are  allied  to  weakness ;  and  that  success  in  the 
competitions  of  business  and  politics  requires  a  certain 
looseness  of  virtue  and  dissoluteness  of  conduct.  The  suc- 
cess and  greatness  of  Mr.  Everett,  a  success  and  greatness 
not  achieved  in  spite  of  virtue,  biat  resting  and  built  upon 
integrity,  purity,  temperance,  charity,  as  its  foundation- 
stones,  is  an  emphatic  and  irrefutable  proof  of  the  folly  of 


18 

such  notions.  He  has  set  before  us  a  sublime  example  of 
simple  goodness  and  patriotic  devotion,  "and  by  it,  he, 
being  dead,  yet  speaketh." 

Of  that  which  pertains  to  his  religious  life  and  feelings, 
they  only  have  a  right  to  speak,  if  any  there  are,  who  were 
admitted  into  the  sanctuary  of  his  most  sacred  moments. 
We  know  that  a  man  is  not  justified  before  God  by  the 
purity  of  his  life,  but  by  the  faith  of  the  Son  of  God ;  and 
we  know  that  Mr.  Everett  was  one  of  those  to  whom  it  was 
not  given  to  see  the  full  "  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus."  But  we 
know,  also,  that  such  full  perception  is  not  essential  to  the 
love  of  Him  who  said,  "If  a  man  love  Me,  My  Father  will 
love  him."  If  we  may  know  men  by  their  fruits,  such  love 
of  man  as  filled  Mr.  Everett's  heart  and  life,  testifies  of  a 
love  of  the  man  Christ  Jesus,  and  inspires  the  confident 
hope  that  that  name  which  is  enrolled  among  those  of  our 
greatest  men,  and  is  imperishably  written  on  the  heart  of 
our  country,  is  recorded  also  in  "the  Lamb's  Book  of  Life." 

It  is  idle  and  invidious  to  draw  comparisons,  and  we 
would  say  nothing  of  the  dead  but  that  which  is  good ;  and 
yet,  as  we  pass  in  thought  from  one  to  another  of  the  rest- 
ing-places of  our  great  men,  we  can  but  remember  of  this 
one,  that  his  vast  powers  were  devoted  rather  to  his'  coun- 
try's disruption  than  to  her  welfare ;  of  another,  that  he 
served  his  own  ambition  rather  than  his  people  ;  of  another, 
that  a  generally  noble  career  was  marred  by  some  act  which 
we  could  wish  had  been  left  undone ;  of  others,  that  their 
greatness  was  defaced  by  the  private  vices  of  the  duellist, 
the  debtor,  the  profane,  the  libertine,  the  gamester,  or  the 
drunkard ;  it  is  but  seldom  that  we  can  mourn  for  a  sreat 

*  O 

man  with  the  feeling  that  there  was  hardly  anything  in 
him  which  we  could  wish  different;  but  there  are  two 


19 

such  men  sleeping  in  our  country's  soil,  with  respect  to 
whom  this  feeling  may  be  especially  entertained ;  two  men 
in  abilities  and  in  character  most  like,  —  the  one  the  mas- 
ter, the  other  the  disciple ;  the  one  the  model,  the  other 
the  warmest  eulogist  and  closest  imitator ;  the  one  the 
father  of  his  country,  the  other  her  purest  son.  There 
are  two  spots  now  where  the  traveller  may  stand  and 
drop  a  tear  of  admiration,  gratitude,  and  sorrow,  over 
the  remains  of  combined  greatness  and  goodness ;  the  one 
is  among  the  solitudes  of  Mt.  Vernon,  —  it  is  the  tomb 
of  Washington;  the  other  is  among  the  multitudes  of  Mt. 
Auburn,  —  it  is  the  grave  of  Everett. 

There  are  some  circumstances  connected  with  his  de- 
parture which  are  exceedingly  painful ;  and  yet,  on  re- 
flection, we  find  in  them  exceeding  propriety  and  beauty. 

We  could  wish  that  he  had  been  allowed  a  little  space 
for  preparation  for  the  solemnity  of  entrance  into  eternity, 
and  for  the  testimony  of  his  faith ;  and  yet  we  are  ready 
to  acquiesce  in  the  arrangements  of  Providence  when  we 
remember,  that  it  is  not  the  last  moment,  but  the  life  which 
affords  at  once  the  best  preparation,  and  the  best  evidence 
of  fitness,  for  the  final  departure. 

We  could  wish  that  he  had  fallen  in  the  midst  of  friends  ; 
that  hands  of  love  had  ministered  to  his  last  necessities ; 
that  Memory  had  been  permitted  to  soothe  him  with  her 
songs  of  duty  done,  and  Religion  to  stand  by  him  with 
uplifted  finger ;  that  a  nation,  hushed  and  sorrowing,  had 
attended  him  to  the  verge  of  life ;  and  yet,  when  we  re- 
member how  alone  he  stood  in  his  greatness,  the  last  of 
his  generation  of  statesmen,  the  mournful  survivor  of  al- 
most all  his  family  and  domestic  happiness,  lonely  in  his 
intellect,  his  patriotism,  his  age,  there  was  a  fitness  in  his 


20 

expiring  alone;  and  it  was  beautifully  and  appropriately 
ordered,  that  he  should  come  to  the  door  of  the  sepulchre, 
where  the  Lord  has  lain,  bearing  the  precious  spices  of  a 
stainless  life,  "as  it  began  to  dawn  toward  the  first  day  of 
the  week." 

We  could  wish  that  he  had  lived  to  see  the  end  of  the 
great  rebellion,  and  the  resurrection  of  his  country,  for 
which  he  had  so  ardently  hoped  and  so  earnestly  labored, 
and  to  which  he  had  so  largely  contributed ;  and  yet,  the 
death  of  faith  is  more  sublime  than  that  of  full  fruition : 
not  all  the  hill-tops  of  Canaan  could  offer  so  glorious  and 
suitable  a  dying  pillow  to  the  deep-hearted  old  leader  of 
Israel  as  the  rocky  summit  of  Pisgah ;  it  was  fitting  that 
he  should  be  numbered  with  the  noble  company  of  those 
who,  confidently  "looking  for  a  better  country,"  have  "died 
in  faith,  not  having  received  the  promise." 

We  could  wish  that  he  had  been  spared  to  us  yet  many 
years,  to  guide  us  by  his  counsels,  to  enrich  us  with  his  ex- 
perience, to  delight  us  with  the  music  of  his  eloquence ; 
we  could  mourn  that  his  great  powers,  which  as  yet  showed 
no  traces  of  decay,  should  be  so  early  extinguished ;  and 
yet,  when  we  remember  how  sad  it  is  to  see  a  great  mind 
breaking  up,  and  a  noble  intellect  shattered  and  overthrown 
by  age,  it  was  well  that  his  sun  should  go  down  while  it 
was  yet  day.  It  was  a  grand  termination  for  so  noble  a 
life.  It  was  the  end  for  which  the  gifted  buccaneer  so  ear- 
nestly prayed, — the  end  which,  perhaps,  every  man  of 
powerful  intellect  covets  for  himself,  - 

"  The  end  of  tropic  sun  ; 
No  pale  gradations  quench  his  ray  ; 
No  twilight  dews  his  wrath  allay ; 
With  disc  like  battle-target  red, 
He  rushes  to  his  burning  bed, 
Dyes  the  wide  wave  with  purple  light, 
Then  —  sinks  at  once,  —  and  all  is  night." 


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